Sofia’s Red HouseCenter for Culture and Debate, along with the Goethe Institute hosted the first of its kind forum for culture, named State of Refugee: People Between Time and Space. We are witnessing an unprecedented in its size migration wave in Europe that caused serious difficulties even for countries like Germany and Austria. Bulgaria went through the first peak of the refugee wave from Syria end-2013, when some 7,000 people looked for asylum here within a few months only. Their number has grown to 15,000 since then and more than 3,500 applied for shelter in October only, says Deputy Chair of the State Agency for Refugees Vasil Varbanov:

“There is a lying silence before the storm now,” he claims. “At the same time the profile of the refugee flow has changed – those were mostly Syrian families end-2013, but now over 70 percent of the migrants are men, aged 18 – 36.”

The strengthened migration pressure over Europe caused difficulties within the entire continent and that is why its politicians’ primary task now should be the creation of a common migration policy, says Head of the Strategic Policies, Analyses and Forecasts department within the presidential administration Ivaylo Petkov.

“We came to realize quickly that the 21^st century was the one of migration. Unfortunately, most of Europe now tends to talk on a migrant wave and behind these words there are lots of faces, destinies and human stories which can be told.”

Logistics is the main focus now, within the political debate and no one has even started the talk about the psychological state of the people, needing shelter. “The unprecedented refugee crisis put Europe’s migration system to a test and drove the financial debate in the direction of the refugee’s place and image,” says Dr. Thomas Heinzel a counselor with the BAMF German service for migration and refugees.

Former long-year director of the Zaatari refugee camp – the biggest one in Jordan, Kilian Kleinschmidt also called on for the migration topic to be viewed as a global phenomenon. Mr. Kleinschmidt is currently counselor with the Austrian government on refugee issues. “We need a new migration order and a new distribution of refugees, globally,” Kleinschmidt claims and adds:

“When we view the issue within its national context only then urgent measures come in front, such as logistics and accommodation. Today we need more than ever joint efforts and sync in the actions of the civic society and the institutions that all fail to work together right now. The future of mankind is in a multiethnic society, a mixture of different nations, cultures and religions. The streets of Manhattan are a good example – one sees people with different skin color, origin and cultural context there.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev